Married men, is your significant other spending more and more time at work? Watch out because it could be a sign that she thinks your relationship is in trouble.

A study found that women who fear their marriage is breaking down begin working longer hours as a 'form of insurance'.

Scientists have worked out that for every 1 per cent increase in the risk of marital breakdown, they put in an extra twelve minutes a week.

'Form of insurance': Women who feel like their marriage is on the rocks spend longer in the office, a new study from LSE researchers claims

But the study also found that there is no strong evidence to suggest men do the same when a relationship is struggling.

Berkay Ozcan and his colleagues at the London School of Economics used the 1996 legalisation of divorce in Ireland to calculate how subsequent marriage breakdown rates affected women’s participation in the workforce.

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'We see women who are at a higher risk of divorce significantly increase how much they work. And it is not that women working outside the home are more likely to get divorced,' he said.

'Rather, faced with a rising probability of divorce, women work more, whether they ultimately separate or not. They are working as a form of insurance in case of divorce or in anticipation of it. Divorce is harder on women.'

In Ireland, following the legalisation of divorce, non-religious married women increased how much they worked by about 18 per cent, compared to their churchgoing counterparts.

Religious women were used as a control
group by the researchers because they were not affected by the new
divorce law - their rate of separation remained constant and their
divorce rate is marginal.

Still holding the family together: Women¿s increased work outside the home was not compensated by either a decrease in domestic time spent on childcare or an increase in childrearing by father, the study also found

The
study using a national survey of almost 3,000 households also found
women’s increased work outside the home was not compensated by either a
decrease in domestic time spent on childcare or an increase in
childrearing by fathers.

'MEN ARE BETTER AT MULTITASKING'

Working mothers may have to juggle more tasks than their husbands, but the long-held belief that women are better than men at multitasking is a myth, according to Swedish research.

'On the contrary, the results of our study show that men are better at multitasking than women,' Timo Maentylae, a psychology professor at Stockholm University, said.

Men are sometimes better than women at handling multiple tasks simultaneously, but the performance gap is correlated to the female menstrual cycle, according to his study.

Dr Ozcan, whose findings are published in the European Economic Review, said: 'Our results suggest women’s changing work patterns outside of the home were not accompanied by a decrease in specialisation of tasks within the home.

'Women who have secured their outside options, in case of divorce, may have done so, at least in the short run, at the expense of their leisure time and potentially their wellbeing.'

After the legislation was introduced non religious women were 34 per cent more likely to divorce, and religious women just 7 per cent more likely.

Dr Ozcan said it is unclear whether legalising divorce may have strengthened or weakened wives’ bargaining position within the marriage.

He said: 'In the short run, women may be hurt more by the higher likelihood of divorce as they are often the weaker spouse financially and would suffer more from a divorce than men.

'In the longer run, however, they may actually adjust labour supply and strengthen outside options.'

Commenting on the findings Ayesha Vardag, one of Britain's leading divorce lawyers, said: 'My own experience is that both men and women tend to work longer hours when they don't want to go home.

'This can be to avoid a partner with whom the relationship has become strained or painful, or to avoid the stresses of child-caring after an exhausting day at work.

'The corollary of that may be that while home life becomes less enticing, the independence of a career, and the sense of self-worth and being ones own person that working gives, becomes all the more important.'

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Is your wife working late? It could be a sign that your marriage is in trouble